Preface#
This article is a record and reflection on the life of the week from 2022-12-07 to 2022-12-13.
It has been about 20 days since I last stepped out of the house. Based on the current intensity of working on multiple projects and the almost zero negative test results, I have no plans to return to the office. I even want to stay at home until the Chinese New Year without going out. Life at home is also very comfortable.
The busy work and side project tasks have blurred the boundaries between weekends and weekdays. However, the habit that has been ingrained for many years still gives me the illusion that "weekends are my own time, and it would be a waste to sleep too much." Plus, without the pressure of early meetings, I tend to sleep later and later. But I have done a lot of interesting things, explored some things I have always wanted to learn, and applied them to projects. I have also created some demo toys and have been in a happy state.
In other times, I watched a Dutch match with a close friend in Australia (although they lost) and learned that I will receive a pleasant gift (although it will be sent to Hong Kong and I can't get it for now). A friend of mine, influenced by me, also started writing weekly reports, urging each other to update (although I procrastinated for a few days). My cat can now understand her name, and a simple "come here" can summon her from every corner of the house, like a Pokémon. And many other interesting things.
Burnout and Anxiety#
In the latest learning record video by polebug, there was a discussion about burnout and anxiety. Personally, I don't really like the term "burnout." Describing oneself as "burned out" seems to imply a sense of superiority and self-satisfaction. Hearing others describe themselves in this way also seems to have a strange meaning, like when a teacher used to say, "This child is not smart, but has always been hardworking and deserves encouragement."
"Burnout" seems to be accompanied by the pervasive anxiety that is everywhere now. It comes from the pressure of work projects, confusion about one's own direction, dissatisfaction with the speed of improvement, and the so-called peer pressure. We tend to focus on the negative aspects of our current stage, always influenced by certain opinions to deny our own qualities, and then use various forms of self-satisfying efforts to squeeze our free time, often leaving us physically and mentally exhausted.
I prefer the description of "Today I Learned" (TIL), which is more commonly mentioned abroad. Besides completing basic or repetitive work, what have I learned? It could be reading some idle books or reference books, learning a new technology, summarizing previous experiences into articles, starting a new project, or optimizing an existing project. As long as it is driven by curiosity and a thirst for knowledge, it can be called a "TIL."
Learning and exploring itself is an interesting thing, and it may not necessarily be directly related to results or benefits. Although it may sound cliché, my rich experiences and knowledge have always made me believe in the mentality of "the usefulness of uselessness." Often, things I did in the past out of interest, curiosity, or other pure purposes bring surprises in future stages. What I need to do is to follow my heart and wait patiently.
Daily Life with 'Nie Nie'#
This week, I continued to stay at home, and I gradually felt a sense of trust and emotional dependence building up (and also became more reckless). When I am busy in various meetings, she would quietly lie in front of the keyboard and fall asleep amidst the noisy voices and keyboard typing. When I haven't paid attention to her for a long time, she would rub against my feet and ask for a hug. When I watch the World Cup, she would pay attention to the movements on the field with me. Before going to bed, she would run and jump into my blanket to sleep together. And when I'm reluctant to get up, she would directly step on my face to "wake me up" for food.
Others#
This section will record my input and output, as well as other interesting things.
Technology#
Because of a side project, I followed some courses I bought on Udemy and learned React this week. I feel that front-end development is still quite interesting. When I was in college, I made some websites to earn extra money. I remember that I used to code HTML, CSS, and JavaScript by myself. I think I used JQuery to manipulate elements. I also used ThinkPHP at that time, and there was some MVC framework. I also made a WeChat mini program. Now it seems like tears of the times.
Because I haven't done front-end development for a long time and don't have much technical burden, I created a demo practice project called "GitHub Finder" using JavaScript + React + TailWind CSS + daisyUI. It is a project to search for GitHub users and repositories. I didn't write many lines of CSS for the whole project, and the mobile responsiveness is also good. It feels comfortable.
However, for the upcoming project, I will need to use TypeScript + Next.js + TailWind CSS, so this demo is just laying the foundation.
Interestingly, I have been writing a lot of JavaScript these past two weeks. The other day, when I was helping a small leader in my work by screen sharing and modifying Go code, I instinctively used .length to get the length of an array. After the error occurred, it took me a long time to realize my mistake. I felt the confusion from the other side of the screen. It seems that I have forgotten Go after a few days without using it, haha.
I feel that I am getting closer to being able to create some interesting little tools on my own. I'm happy about that.
Input#
Anime#
- The Three-Body Problem: I have been looking forward to the animated version of The Three-Body Problem for a while. Two episodes have been released, and I have read most of the original work myself, but I can't say that I'm a big fan or have much faith. Overall, it's quite good, with decent visuals and pacing.